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Quick hits: Penguins-Red Wings generates high ratings

A few news items for people who are especially interested in how (and what) the sport is doing on TV.

  • Apparently, Monday’s Penguins-Red Wings game is the highest rated regular season game Versus ever carried and the highest rated U.S. cable game since 2004. Here’s a little more from a press release on the subject.

VERSUS earned a .7 National HH rating and averaged 622,000 viewers for the March 22 Pittsburgh Penguins at Detroit Red Wings game making it VERSUS’ highest-rated and most-watched NHL regular season game in network history and the most-watched NHL regular season telecast on U.S. cable since 2004. The game peaked at a .9 National HH rating and 760,000 viewers during the live telecast.

  • Considering the star power of Capitals-Penguins and the fact that the NHL Network is running its week-long free preview this week, I cannot help but wonder if tonight’s game will be the Network’s highest rated U.S. game to boot. Since I have no idea how to predict ratings numbers, I’ll instead post this fun video of the two team’s top 10 goals from this season.

  • Finally, the NHL’s radio show NHL Live apparently will broadcast from Las Vegas on Thursday and Friday. Here’s a quick snippet about that show.

In addition to the event’s host, Wayne Gretzky, an impressive collection of NHL stars is scheduled to appear over the course of the show’s two-day Vegas run. Hockey Hall of Famers Luc Robitaille, Larry Robinson, Brian Leetch, Grant Fuhr and Denis Savard and Stanley Cup-winning coach Mike Keenan are among the hockey luminaries expected to drop by and chat with Craig and E.J.

I have only one request: please, spare us “Vegas, baby!” jokes. That isn’t just directed at NHL Live - that’s directed at society as a whole. That one-liner (along with “whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”) need to go away for a long, long time. How about ... forever?